Savage Worlds

Space: 1889 Red Sands

Another Space 1889 in the works!

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Space: 1889 Red SandsRecently I wrote about a new version of Space 1889 being worked on by the German publisher Uhrwerk Verlag.
But this is not the only updated version of Space 1889 that is being developed right now.

Pinnacle Entertainment Group finally announced their secret project and it was revealed to be: Space 1889: Red Sands! It will use the Savage World rules and comes with a Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign.  

But as far as I understand the press anouncement Space 1889: Red Sands will be a one-shot only.
So, if you are looking for a completely new Space: 1889 line, you’ll have to wait for the Uhrwerk Verlag release. Nevertheless I am looking forward to this release.  Savage Worlds is one of my favorite systems right now and Space 1889 is a setting I would love to play in.  The image to the right shows half of the cover artwork of the upcoming book.

I think the main selling point of the book will be the campaign and the background information, because if you already own the original book by GDW or the reprint by Heliograph, you can easily come up with a Savage Worlds conversion yourself.

Lost World of Hador

Two new upcoming Savage Worlds settings

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Evil DM Productions, an indie game design studio, has announced two new settings for use with the Savage Worlds rules. The first setting “Legends of Steel” will be a sword and sorcery setting:

Legend of SteelThe type of Sword & Sorcery adventuring that Legends of Steel attempts to capture is the truly heroic, amazing, over the top action found in the Sword & Sorcery comic books of the 70’s, the low budget Sword & Sorcery movies of the 80’s and the adventure filled Sword & Sorcery television shows of the 90’s.

Legends of Steel will be released in several editions, each one complimenting a different set of rules.

The second set of rules mentioned is their own Broadsword rule system that can be acquired for just $3.95 at RPGNow. I haven’t checked it out but our fellow blogger Philippe-Antoine Menard has said some nice words about it:

Broadsword is a minimalist but effective RPG engine that offers to recreate the best (and worst) of low-budget/low-fantasy movies taken directly out of the collective recollection of the sword & Sorcery genre of the 70’s and 80’s. It’s a great beer and pretzels game for a good evening of good natured mayhem and crude jokes.

Magic system needs to be hacked to be playable and equipment costs were left out of game (intentionally).

Still the game delivers at what it promises.

The second setting is “The Lost World of Hador”, a pulp setting inspired by the works of authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. Of course nobody can comment on the quality of the setting itself, but the cover artwork looks pretty sweet. 

Lost World of Hador
And since I always wanted to play a pulp game, I might check this out, when it’s released.

Dungeoncraft: New Races for Asecia

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The last time I wrote about Asecia I planned to use the FATE rules and I decided against non-human races. But in the end things always turn out differently than planned. My current draft of the Asecia Campaign Setting uses the Savage Worlds rules and I have created two original races: the Tolkyn and the Skarians.

The Tolkyn
The Tolkyn are a race of humanoids that are probably closely related to humankind. The average Tolkyn is a couple inches taller than the average human, has an athletic build, a long slender neck, broad shoulders and muscular arms that are sleightly longer than human arms. All Tolkyn have a dark blue almost black skin and feline eyes. Tolkyn have large pointed ears and usually long hair that ranges from white to dark blue.
When humanity first encountered the Tolkyn had already settled most of southern Asecia. Tolkyn cities could be found from the grasslands south of Cerynia to the Ciazah Desert. Because of the human advances on Tolkyn settlements it came to war. After many battles the Tolkyn retreated to the desert regions. 
In moden Asecia the Tolkyn are the main exporter of meteoric iron and all kinds of products crafted from that rare ore. Most of the Tolkyn live in the Ciazah Confederacy that consists of the five major Tolkyn city states Maranis, Alaraby, Nevehnu, Ciarish and Urechar.

Tolkyn

  • Strong: Tolkyn characters start with a d6 in Strength
  • Low-light vision: The Tolkyn’s feline eyes allow the Tolkyn to see in the dark. A Tolkyn character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
  • Outsider: Tolkyn are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

The Skarians
The Skarians are a race of small (an adult skarian is approx. 1 meter tall) humanoids. They have a greenish-gray skin, large heads with a mouth full of razorsharp teeth and big eyes. Skarians do not have hair. Skarians are strict carnivores and tribal Skarians even eat the flesh of their defeated enemies. Like Tolkyn they have rather large and pointed ears but a close relation between the two species is not confirmed by modern scholars. Skarians are very cunning and have a knack for mechanical things.

When the human settlers arrived in Asecia they soon stumbled upon Skarian tribes. What followed can only be described as a massacre. Several hundred thousand Skarians were wiped out, the rest fled to the deep woods of northern Asecia. A few tribal Skarians still live in those woods until today. They survive by ambushing caravans and small settlements.
Much to the surprise of the human settlers the tribal Skarians were only a subspecies. In the mountains to the east they encountered the Mytagiir Empire, a nation of civilized Skarians that were excellent miners and blacksmiths. The Mytagiir Empire still exists today and it’s a close ally of Cerynia since Imperial times.

Tribal Skarian

  • Bite: Str+d4
  • Small: Members of the skarian race are very short. Substract 1 from you character’s Toughness.
  • Berserk: Tribal Skarians have the ability to go berserk during combat. See the SW rulebook for details.
  • Low-light vision: The big eyes allow the Skarians to see in the dark. A Skarian character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
  • Outsider: Skarian are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

Mytagiir Skarian

  • Bite: Str+d4
  • Small: Members of the skarian race are very short. Substract 1 from you character’s Toughness.
  • Mechanical Apitude: Civilized Skarians start with d6 in Repair and Lockpick.
  • Low-light vision: The big eyes allow the Skarians to see in the dark. A Skarian character ignores attack penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.
  • Outsider: Skarian are outsiders in a human dominated society. They get -2 on Charisma when dealing with humans.

This is my first try at creating custom races for Savage Worlds, so there might be some balance problems. If you have any ideas on how to improve the Tolkyn and Skarians, please let me know.

UPDATE: I added Low-Light Vision and Outsider to the Skarians.

SW GM screen

One GM screen to rule them all

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I have seen a lot GM screens in my roleplaying times and most of them were either not too sturdy or the information printed on the GM’s side was only partially useful. One excellent GM screen was the one released by WotC for the new D&D 4th Edition but there’s another GM screen that put’s them all to shame!

I am talking about the “Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen” by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. For around 26 bucks you get a sturdy trifold vinyl screen that has 6 pockets that you can use to customize your screen. I currently use it with the Pirates of the Spanish Main insets that you get for free at the official site, but you can easily create your own insets. If you don’t mind to create your own insets, you can use this GM screen with any roleplaying game. And since it’s coated with vinyl it’s pretty resistance to the common dangers on the playing table like sticky softdrinks, candle wax and/or spilled snack food.
You can even use it to hit your players if they don’t behave. It’s the perfect tool for the GM. :)

Pirates are playing in the sandbox

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This saturday, we concluded our first Pirates of the Spanish Main adventure. I used the adventure that was printed in the back of the book, added some things and made some minor changes to the characters. I also built up the Baron Pettigrew to become a recurring villain.
And instead of going to plan another adventure I will now prepare for a sandbox campaign, where the players fully decide what they want to do. I will of course always have some single-sheet adventures ready, but for the most time I will try to avoid “rail-roading” the players.
In my opinion the Spanish Main is perfectly suited for that kind of campaign. But hey, what do I mean when I talk about a sandbox campaign? I am talking about a open-ended campaign where the player’s decide the course of action not a pre-planned adventure. If the player’s want to go plundering, it’s fine with me, if the want to do trading, it’s their call.
As a GM I will set the background and once in a while drop in some hints on some things I’ve planned in the past. Just like the “sub-quests” in some computer games. But there’s no epic “rescue the world from utter destruction” plot that forces me to railroad the players to some climatic fight at the end. If they want to bring down the evil Baron Pettigrew, it’s their decision not mine. But I have some ideas on how the world will change around them even without them doing anything. After all, even the Spanish Main in the 17th century was not a static place.

SWEE Cover

“Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition” Review

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Savage Worlds is a multi-genre roleplaying game created by Pinnacle Entertainment. So it’s no coincidence that the Savage Worlds rules have some similarities with the classic Deadlands rules. But other than Deadlands which comes with an original background, the Savage World rules are suited for any campaign. And if you don’t want to create your own campaign there are quite a few SW campaign settings available at your FLGS and you can get dozens of “one-sheet adventures” at the official PegInc site for free!

The “Explorer’s Edition”
The SWEE is the newest edition of the SW rules. It’s a 160 pages paperback book and of smaller size than usual roleplaying game rules. The advantage is that you can easily carry the book around and check out the rules with ease instead of hauling around a whole library of books. And in most cases you don’t need anything more than this book, your campaign, dice, and a deck of poker cards to play or run SW.
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protonik

Superhero campaigns

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Although I am no avid fan I like superhero comics, movies and computer games. I also own “Mutants & Masterminds“, the superhero RPG by Green Ronin. But I’ve never actually played in or even run a superhero campaign. Especially after watching “Dr. Horrible” I would like to run a short superheroes campaign perhaps using Savage Worlds or the beforementioned M&M. But I am still unsure how I should pull it off.

  • Homebrew setting or an already existing universe?
    Shall I create my own setting or shall I go with some preexisting world like the Marvel Universe? The problem with the latter is that shall the players play their favorite heroes from the comics or original characters?
  • Silly or serious?
    I mentioned “Dr. Horrible” before. The “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was a superhero musical in three episodes by Joss Whedon (you’ve probably seen it). “Dr. Horrible” is great comedy. Creating a campaign following the “Dr. Horrible” route would probably allow funny characters and a lot of laughs. But you also could take the genre more serious and create something like the recent Batman movies. I always had some trouble with running “funny” campaigns, so I would probably run a darker campaign.

What are your thoughts on superhero roleplaying campaigns? Please share your experiences in the comments. I would love to read your ideas on the subject!

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